Serenade: Poetry and Prose 1975-1989

"Special care is language," wrote Ted Berrigan about Bill Berkson's early poems of the 1960s. Now we have what might be termed 'the middle period' -- Berkson's poetry and "extended prose" from the mid-1970s to 1989. There are stories and abstractions, a lot of weather, domestic affairs, changes of light, relaxed saxophone-type solos over catchy themes. But this is polyphonic poetry. No narcissism: the focus on what is there; the objective, the realization, delight.